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HILO (HawaiiNewsNow) – Governor Neil Abercrombie announced in his State of the State speech that he wants to re-open the Kulani Correctional Facility on the Big Island by July 1, 2014. Residents had a chance to offer their opinions on Tuesday night at a public meeting in Hilo.

The Lingle administration closed Kulani in 2009 after officials determined it wasn’t fiscally feasible to keep running the facility. Abercrombie, however, is determined to change that next year. Roughly 30% of Hawaii’s 6,000 inmates are held in mainland prisons. 200 of them could come back if the minimum security facility is re-opened.

“What happened in the past was the prisoners went up there, but now we have a chance to bring them home,” said resident Louie Hao.

They would be prisoners who are two to four years from finishing their sentences. The move would also create more than 90 staff positions.

A Honolulu lawyer who represents about 70 Hawaii inmates at an Arizona prison said officials there routinely harass and retaliate against some of those inmates for bringing complaints about their treatment behind bars.

Hawaii inmates at Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona often use the phone to talk to their Hawaii-based attorneys, such as Myles Breiner. But he said officials at the prison routinely listen to the prisoners’ side of the conversations and take notes on their contents, a violation of attorney-client privilege.

“Inmates, as a result, are intimidated. They are reluctant to discuss anything over the phone,” Breiner said. “Our clients are told, ‘Why do you need that lawyer? You don’t need that lawyer. We can help you without that attorney.'”

Breiner said Saguaro inmates who file complaints about abuse by guards, improper medical attention and other problems with staff are retaliated against with unfair misconduct violations, which can make them ineligible to get parole.

“Inmates who are pursuing litigation have a disproportionate number of misconducts filed against them by the facility,” Breiner said.

A spokesman for Corrections Corporation of America, the private company that owns the prison where Hawaii houses more than 1,600 of its inmates, released a statement responding to some of Breiner’s allegations. “CCA takes the safety and dignity of the inmates entrusted to our care very seriously,” said Steven Owen, senior director of public affairs for the prison company. “We have a zero-tolerance policy for any form of retaliation and take any such allegations very seriously.”

Owen said the Saguaro Correctional Center has a “robust grievance process” that inmates can use to voice concerns or complaints, and he said the prison encourages them to do so.

But Breiner has other complaints.

“The warden has a habit of referring to me as ‘That Jew lawyer. That Jew lawyer Myles Breiner.” They hope to have me put in segregation,” Briener said.

In a letter he wrote to Hawaii’s Attorney General David Louie, Breiner said his clients tell him the prison warden and his assistant warden say they want to lock Breiner up if he visits the facility.

This poor man’s murder was preventable – and horrendous. Condolences to his loved ones. I hope you make CCA and the State of Hawai’i pay – it’s the only thing that seems to make these people change how they abuse and neglect other human beings. If you need the support of other prisoners’ families surviving similar traumas, please let me know (Peggy Plews 480-580-6807 prisonabolitionist@gmail.com). I am in Phoenix, AZ.

Today the family of Bronson Nunuha, a 26-year-old Hawaii prisoner who was brutally murdered at a Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) (NYSE:CXW) private prison in Arizona in 2010, filed a lawsuit in state court against CCA and the State of Hawaii. The suit exposes CCA’s business model of grossly short-staffing prisons and cutting corners in every way possible to make its private prisons profitable. These systemic practices violated fundamental safety requirements and subjected Hawaii prisoners to rampant gang violence in under-staffed prison units. Bronson Nunuha was just months away from release on a burglary conviction when CCA forced him to share housing with extremely violent, gang-affiliated prisoners in the same unit. A copy of the complaint is here.

“Bronson’s death was senseless and preventable. CCA and the State of Hawaii needlessly put him in danger,” said attorney Kenneth M. Walczak, who, along with the Human Rights Defense Center and the ACLU of Hawaii, represents the Nunuha family.

“Private prisons are known to have higher levels of violence due to understaffing and high staff turnover that result from their goal of generating ever-greater profits,” added HRDC director Paul Wright. “But prison companies are not allowed to make profit more important than human life. Unfortunately, CCA’s desire to turn a corporate profit needlessly cost Bronson Nunuha his life.”

Bronson was transferred to CCA’s Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona as part of a controversial practice in which Hawaii prisoners are sent to for-profit mainland facilities. He was serving a 5-year sentence for burglary and property damage when he was killed by other prisoners. Bronson, who was only months away from completing his sentence and returning to his family on Oahu, left behind a grieving mother, sisters, and his seven-year-old son.

Under Hawaii law, the State was required to return Bronson to Hawaii when he had only a year left on his sentence so that he could complete necessary programs to help him re-enter the community. The State ignored this law.

Bronson was murdered in CCA’s “Special Housing Incentive Program,” or SHIP. The SHIP program places rival gang members and prisoners who do not belong to any gang together in one unit, where they share recreation time and sometimes the same cell. Predictably, this practice results in violent incidents like Bronson’s murder. Only one CCA employee was present to oversee approximately 50 prisoners in the SHIP unit where Bronson was housed.

While at the CCA prison, Bronson had asked to be removed from the SHIP unit but CCA staff denied his requests. On February 18, 2010, two gang members attacked Bronson in his cell; the cell door had been opened by a CCA employee, who then left. Bronson was beaten and stabbed over 100 times. His assailants carved the name of their gang into his chest and even had time to leave his cell, shower and change clothes before CCA staff knew that Bronson had been killed.

One of Bronson’s assailants, Miti Maugaotega, Jr., had previously been involved in several attacks on other prisoners at a different CCA prison. Maugaotega, a gang member, was serving multiple life sentences for attempted murder, rape, and armed robbery. CCA and the State knew that Maugaotega was dangerous and capable of extreme violence but still housed him in the same unit as Bronson, a non-violent offender close to finishing a 5-year sentence.

CCA prisons that house Hawaii prisoners have been plagued with problems. In addition to Bronson’s murder, another Hawaii prisoner, Clifford Medina, was killed at the Saguaro facility in June 2010. In 2009, Hawaii removed all of its female prisoners from CCA’s Otter Creek Correctional Center in Kentucky following a scandal that resulted in at least six CCA employees being charged with rape or sexual misconduct. Other Hawaii prisoners have sued CCA, charging that the company has tolerated beatings and sexual assaults in its mainland prisons, and for refusing to allow them to participate in native Hawaiian religious practices.

“Why the State of Hawaii continues to contract with this company is mystifying, frankly,” said Wright. “After two murders, disturbances, allegations of rampant sexual abuse and a lack of accountability by CCA employees, it’s fairly obvious that CCA is unable or unwilling to safely house Hawaii prisoners, and the State is unable or unwilling to adequately monitor conditions at mainland prisons. Hawaii taxpayers are certainly not getting what they’re paying for.”

ACLU of Hawaii Senior Staff Attorney Dan Gluck added, “the ACLU has long warned the State about the damaging effects of its short-sighted policy of shipping prisoners to the mainland. This tragedy is bound to be repeated unless Hawaii adopts more effective prison policies.”

Bronson’s family is represented by the San Francisco law firm of Rosen, Bien & Galvan, LLP, by HRDC chief counsel Lance Weber, and by the ACLU of Hawaii’s Dan Gluck. The attorneys ask anyone with information about Bronson’s death – or information about violations of other safety rules at the CCA Saguaro Correctional Facility – to contact them. ###

The Human Rights Defense Center, founded in 1990 and based in Brattleboro, Vermont, is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting human rights in U.S. detention facilities. HRDC publishes Prison Legal News, a monthly magazine that includes reports, reviews and analysis of court rulings and news related to prisoners’ rights and criminal justice issues. PLN has almost 7,000 subscribers nationwide and operates a website (www.prisonlegalnews.org) that includes a comprehensive database of prison and jail-related articles, news reports, court rulings, verdicts, settlements and related documents.

Rosen Bien & Galvan, LLP has a unique practice blending public interest and private sector litigation. The firm represents individuals and companies in complex trial and appellate litigation in state & federal courts.

The key term is “evidence-based practice”. Good luck. I hope you manage to wage a successful boycott of Eloy and CCA by the time this battle is over. Israel outlawed private prisons because the profit motive is in direct opposition to human rights concerns – maybe Hawai’i will abandon them as well, for all the right reasons.

This study examined the records of the 660 persons who were released on parole in the State of Hawaii between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2006 (Fiscal Year 2006). It addresses two main questions: What are the demographic and criminal history profiles of parolees who have been incarcerated in Hawaii and in private prisons out of state? And, how do the recidivism rates of these two groups compare? Using records obtained from the Hawaii Paroling Authority, the Department of Public Safety, and the Department of the Attorney General, parolees were tracked for three to four years after their release from prison.

The study found that:

– 54 percent of Hawaii’s prisoners are incarcerated in private prisons on the mainland — the highest percentage among all U.S. states.

– As of the end of 2009, it cost approximately $118 per day to incarcerate an inmate in Hawaii, and at least $62 per day to incarcerate him or her in a private prison on the mainland. Note, however, that unlike the in-state per day cost, the private prison cost estimate is not all-inclusive.

– 75 percent of Fiscal Year 2006 parolees never served time in a private prison on the mainland, while 25 percent did serve time there.

– Of the one-quarter of parolees who have been imprisoned on the mainland, 70 percent served half or more of their time there.

– The average time served on the mainland was 3.5 years.The analysis of the parolees’ demographic and criminal history profiles found that:

– Parolees averaged 56 total prior arrests and 24 convictions per parolee, including an average of 20 prior felony arrests and 8 felony convictions.

– Parolees in the mainland cohort had somewhat more felony arrests and felony convictions per person than did parolees in the Hawaii cohort.

– Parolees in the mainland cohort had been convicted of fewer property and drug crimes, and more violent and “other” offenses, than had the parolees in the Hawaii cohort.

– The average maximum sentence for parolees who had been incarcerated on the mainland was longer: 10.9 years, versus 8.5 years for the Hawaii cohort.

– The average time served by the mainland cohort was longer: 6.2 years, versus 3.2 years for the Hawaii cohort.

– The mainland cohort included substantially more males than did the Hawaii cohort: 20 male parolees for every female parolee in the mainland group, versus 4 male parolees for every female parolee in the Hawaii group.

– As compared to their male counterparts, female parolees in both cohorts were more likely to be property and drug crime offenders.

– There were no statistically significant differences in ethnicity between the two parole cohorts. Most notably, Native Hawaiians comprised 40 percent of each cohort.

The analysis of recidivism found that:

– Parolees in the mainland cohort received significantly lower scores on the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R). Hence, mainlanders had fewer needs for service and a lower average risk of recidivism than did parolees in the Hawaii cohort.

– A little more than half of parolees in both cohorts failed on parole within three years.

– The average time to recidivism in both cohorts was about 15 months.

– The recidivism rate for the mainland cohort (53 percent) was slightly lower than the recidivism rate for the Hawaii cohort (56 percent), but this difference is not statistically significant.

– There was more recidivism among the mainland cohort for parolees in the higher-risk LSI-R categories.

– There was more recidivism among the mainland cohort for violating conditions of parole.

– Nearly half of all rearrests were for violating the conditions of parole.

– In both cohorts, older people recidivated less than did younger people. Age is a powerful ally of efforts to stop criminal offending.

– There were few significant differences between the two cohorts in acts of misconduct committed while in prison.

– Parolees in the mainland cohort were more likely to violate parole conditions than were parolees in the Hawaii group.

– Furlough programs were related to significantly lower rates of recidivism among mainland parolees, but not among parolees who were imprisoned only in Hawaii.

Recommendations from this study:

– Since there is no empirical justification for the policy argument that private prisons reduce recidivism better than public prisons, the State of Hawaii should decide whether to continue, discontinue, expand, or contract its reliance on private prisons based on other criteria. While cost is one criterion, it is not the only one that is important to consider.

– It is ill-advised to rely on a framework for thinking about corrections (herein termed humonetarianism) that stresses short-term financial savings at the expense of programs aimed at improving the prospects for offenders’ rehabilitation and the satisfaction of their basic needs and rights. Long-term savings are often found in forward-thinking policies and programs.

– The State of Hawaii needs to calculate more inclusive and accurate estimates of the cost of incarceration in-state and in private prisons on the mainland.

– Much more research needs to be done in order to adequately describe the contours and consequences of Hawaii’s correctional policy. One high priority is a study that explores who gets sent to prison (and where). The present study examined only persons who were released on parole.

– The State of Hawaii should conduct more research about its correctional policies and outcomes, especially given a policy world that is increasingly evidence-based.

– The Department of Public Safety and the Hawaii Paroling Authority need an integrated records management system. At present, inmates’ records are often incomplete, scattered, and difficult to locate.

Shame on the state of Hawaii for continuing this contract after all the abuses (including torture and the sexual assault of a prisoner by a guard) that have occurred in Saguaro Correctional Center in the prison town of Eloy under CCA’s watch. The people of the Islands should oppose this vociferously…your prisoners are just in for more abuse at the hands of Arizonans – especially your Indigenous. In fact, following this news article is a link to a decent piece by a friend of mine, Frank Smith from Private Corrections Institute, who’s an expert on the private prison industry. He did some extensive research into the experience of Native Americans in private prisons – it’s worth reading.

BY JIM DOOLEY – The state has signed a new, three-year contract with Corrections Corporation of America to house up to 1,900 prison inmates at private prisons in Arizona.

The price carries a one per cent increase over the curent contract with CCA, which expires at the end of the month. The Department of Public Safety will pay CCA $63.85 per inmate per day. The old rate was $63.22.

CCA is believed to have submitted the sole bid for the contract.

The new deal, which carries two possible one-year contract extensions, was signed as Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s administration is making plans to end the longstanding policy of imprisoning Hawaii inmates in out-of-state facilities.

Public Safety officials are drawing up a plan for the return of out-of-state prisoners, but its completion is sometime in the future and will depend on construction of new correctional facilities here and development of new community-based programs for men and women now locked behind bars.

The Hawaii State Auditor said in a report issued late last year the total cost of the private prison program more than tripled since 2001, from just under $20 million to more than $60 million.

The per-day charges under the new contract would total some $44.3 million, although there are millions the state must pay in associated costs which the contract with CCA doesn’t cover.

The actual number of Hawaii inmates now held at CCA’s Saguaro Correctional Facility in Eloy, Arizona is now believed to have dropped under 1,800 as the state has stepped up efforts to bring certain categories of prisoners home.

Some 60 Hawaii inmates are also being held at CCA’s Red Rock Correctional Facility, next door to the Saguaro complex.

Follow the link for the full text of the article, which I found posted to a great website on Lenape (Delaware Indian) culture and issues. The article was originally published as a chapter in the book “Capitalist Punishment: Prison Privatization and Human Rights” (Elizabeth Alexander, et al), a worthwhile text for any library on crime and punishment.

There are currently slightly over two million inmates in local, state and federal jails and prisons. Of these, some 1.6 percent are Native Americans and Hawaiian Natives; in Federal institutions, Native Americans constitute 2 percent of the population, since the U.S. government is involved in criminal justice enforcement on reservations. Because approximately 6 percent of all U.S. inmates are held in private prisons, the total number of Native Americans in these for-profit prisons is comparatively rather small. For that reason, this article presents a picture of the conditions in which Native Americans are held given that limited experience.

Historical Perspective

In order to achieve an informed understanding of the current situation with regard to Native Americans in prison, it is necessary to place it within a larger historical and sociological context. While most residents of the US have the notion their country was founded on the principles of justice and freedom, closer examination reveals that perception is not accurate, particularly in the case of Native Americans.1

The more progressive of our founding fathers whom we remember so fondly as protectors of these ideals include Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson. Paine consistently referred to Indians as “savages”, and used them as a negative comparative stereotype. Jefferson considered his contemporary Indians to be hindrances to colonial progress. The US only granted Natives citizenship in 1924, five years after women and 59 years after Black males were allowed to vote.

African Americans have undoubtedly been pervasively discriminated against in US history–their dehumanization was even embodied in the Constitution. Schoolchildren learn of the more egregious Supreme Court-approved violations of the rights of Blacks such as the Dred Scott decision or Plessy v. Feurgeson,2 and that the Civil War was fought in part over slavery.

They may have read the Emancipation Proclamation and even the Thirteenth to Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The sordid history in America of slave owning, in the north and south, of lynching, of Jim Crow, is discussed in most schools. The role of such historic figures as Frederick Douglas or Sojourner Truth is widely recognized. Martin Luther King Jr., is certainly better known than many mediocre presidents. Selma, Alabama, and Little Rock, Arkansas are familiar mileposts, as is Brown v. Board of Education. Students may even understand the meaning of racial profiling, of the immensedisparity between sentencing for crack cocaine, more prevalent in inner-city neighborhoods, and powdered cocaine, more favored by wealthier uburbanites.

They may possibly be aware that a Black adolescent has perhaps a 50 times greater chance of being placed in an adult penal institution than a white youth who has been charged with exactly the same crime,3 and that perhaps one of three young Black men has been subjected to some criminal sanction, such as probation, parole, jail or prison.

Yet how many Americans, young or old, fully understand that this same disenfranchisement; this same disproportionate treatment by the criminal justice system, has affected Native Americans since the Articles of Confederation were signed? How many realize that broken treaties have been the order of the day for over two hundred years? Do they know that the early settlement of this nation involved pushing indigenous peoples into ever smaller, less habitable reservations?

How many school children are taught the cruel facts behind the genocidal removal of the inhabitants of the post-Revolutionary Southeast? There is hardly a Native American tribe that does not have a history of broken treaties and persecution. What this long, troubled relationship between European Americans and Natives constitutes is deliberate disregard for and discrimination against Native culture. Theft of lands, exiles, dispossessions, and a prevailing condemnatory and paternalistic attitude provide the background for the problems of Native Americans in prisons, both public and private, today. It particularly pervades the conditions of confinement of Indians in private prisons…

Less than a month after retiring from his post as Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Harley G. Lappin has been hired to a top positon at the nation’s largest private, for-profit prison contractor, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). In a move that has gone virtually unnoticed by the press except on the business pages, Lappin, who had run the BOP since 2003, has been named CCA’s Executive VP and Chief Corrections Officer. According to a company press release, his responsibilities will include “the oversight of facility operations, health services, inmate rehabilitation programs, [and] purchasing.”

Lappin announced his retirement in March, a few days before making public his arrest, the previous month, on DUI charges in Maryland. In a memo apologizing to BOP employees, Lappin admitted to a “lapse in my judgment…giving rise to potential embarrassment to the agency,” but he refused to acknowledge a direct link between his arrest and his retirement. The announcement of his appointment to a leadership position at CCA came just over three weeks after his effective retirement date of May 7.

Taking advantage of two concurrent 30-year trends–toward mass incarceration and toward privatization of government services–CCA has grown to a $1.6 billion company that operates 66 facilities in 20 states, with approximately 90,000 beds. It has become notorious for its poor treatment of prisoners, and for numerous preventable injuries and deaths in its prisons and immigrant detention centers. About 40 percent of CCA’s business comes from the federal government, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as the Bureau of Prisons. As BOP director, Lappin would have overseen government contracts with CCA worth tens of millions of dollars. CCA spends approximately $1 million annually on lobbying on the federal level alone.

A press release from the invaluable Private Corrections Working Group notes that Lappin’s quick trip through the government-to-industry revolving door is hardly unique in the Bureau of Prisons’ history: “Lappin joins another former BOP director already employed with CCA, J. Michael Quinlan, who was hired by the company in 1993. He retired as director of the BOP in 1992, several months after settling a lawsuit that accused him of sexually harassing a male BOP employee. While settling the suit, Quinlan denied allegations that he made sexual advances to the employee in a hotel room.”

In addition, there’s the case of the recently appointed head of the U.S. Marshals Service, Stacia Hylton, who until 2010 was the Federal Detention Trustee. In between serving in these two high-ranking government positions, Hylton worked as a consultant for the GEO Group, the nation’s second largest private prison contractor. During Hylton’s tenure, the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee gave several contracts to GEO; and the U.S. Marshals Service, like ICE and the BOP, houses federal detainees in privately owned prisons, including some run by GEO.

“Federal ethics rules do not prohibit former high-ranking employees such as Lappin and Hylton from working for private companies, even when those companies contract with the same federal agencies where those former officials were employed,” the Private Corrections Working Group points out. “An Executive Order issued by President Obama restricts appointees from taking official actions that directly and substantially affect immediate former clients and employers; however, that ethics rule was not applied to Hylton and it has been waived for over two dozen other federal officials, according to a report by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.”

James Ridgeway is a senior correspondent at Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here. Get James Ridgeway’s RSS feed.

Here are the profiles for the members of the Board of Directors of Corrections Corporation of America – serious power-hitters. No wonder they managed to convince Hawai’i to kill my buddy Thad’s parole after he wrote that letter to the CEO. He was good to go, then got a disciplinary ticket after I posted that letter – and the warden personally contacted the parole board to have him hit for another year before he gets reconsidered now.I bet Hawaii’s parole board members have no idea they were just played for political retaliation against a prisoner. That probably happens all the time, though.

Send Thad some love for his courage, folks. Let CCA know we care about what they do to him. I just subscribed him to Prison Legal News to keep him company for the next year there, in case they mess with him again.

Anyway, if I was on the board of CCA this past year, I’d be putting a lot of distance between myself and them this year. Arizona CCA prisons alone were host to two murders, a riot, widespread torture and abuse, and rape. I believe all that happened in Eloy, in fact – the City of God.They’re hoping to add more prisoners to their census soon, too – though Hawai’i is wanting to pull out as soon as they possibly can, after all the violence that’s befallen their people in our fine state.

You know they select the indigenous prisoners to send to Arizona because it diminishes their resistance to be taken away from their families and homeland, by the way. I suspect Alaska has done the same – it would make a good research project, digging up that data and the consequences to the indigenous – maybe there’s even a class action suit in it. Isn’t it disturbing that we still do that in America?

Here are the real criminals profiting from CCA’s abuse and exploitation… shame on all of them for sitting on that board – they should all resign in disgust. What a sad legacy for Justice Thurgood Marshall, that his son carries his name there; the man must be turning over in his grave. And is it any wonder to see good old Dennis DeConcini there, too?

Listen to them extol the “extraordinary qualities” of their founders…how about pure greed for a driving value? What a corrupt lot of pious people. God I hope Arizona doesn’t give them a new contract for our prisons – Arizonans have been abused enough.

“Our founders were creative, flexible and adaptable, and these extraordinary qualities still guide us today. CCA employees continue to make this company a success through the very same values on which the company was founded more than 25 years ago.”

– John Ferguson, CCA Chairman of the Board

John D. Ferguson, Chairman of Board

John Ferguson began serving as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer in July 2008 after serving as President and CEO of Corrections Corporation of America since August 2000. He joined the company following a 33-year business career that includes extensive experience in finance, entrepreneurial ventures, corporate turnarounds and government experience. Most recently he served as the Commissioner of Finance and Administration for the state of Tennessee for four years. Just four years after graduating from Mississippi State University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, he co-founded Econocom in 1971, a computer sales and leasing company, which he operated for 10 years. In 1973, Mr. Ferguson helped found a bank, assisted in the organization of the board of directors and served as a director of the bank. In 1982, he founded a merger and acquisitions firm and served as CEO until 1993. He continued to serve on the board of the bank, serving as Chairman and CEO from 1990 until 1995.

Donna M. Alvarado

Donna M. Alvarado was elected to the Company’s Board of Directors in December 2003 as an independent director. Ms. Alvarado is the founder and managing director of Aguila International. Aguila is an international business-consulting firm, specializing in human resources and leadership development, that provides a consortium for businesses and non-profit organizations seeking to collaborate in the western hemisphere. Ms. Alvarado has held senior management positions in government, in addition to her established career in the private business sector. She has served as deputy assistant secretary of defense, U.S. Department of Defense; counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Policy; and staff member of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control. Ms. Alvarado also was appointed by President Reagan and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as director of ACTION, the federal domestic volunteer agency, where she directed the activities of nearly 500,000 Americans serving as volunteers, leading 500 employees and managing a $170 million budget. Ms. Alvarado currently serves as a Regent on the Ohio Board of Regents, serves as a member of the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education and the Economy, and Vice Chair of the Governor’s Workforce Policy Board in Ohio. Ms. Alvarado earned her postgraduate certificate in Financial Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, completed doctoral coursework on Latin American Literature from the University of Oklahoma, and earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Spanish from Ohio State University.

William F. Andrews

Bill Andrews assumed the role of Director and Chairman of Executive Committee in July 2008 after serving as CCA’s Chairman of the Board since August 2000. Andrews has earned high marks as chairman, president and CEO of five public companies, including three New York Stock Exchange companies. He has also served as chairman of three private companies and on the boards of many public companies. As a principal at Kohlberg & Company since 1995, Andrews brings significant experience in financial markets and finance to CCA. He was a member of CCA’s board from 1986 until 1998, prior to the company’s merger with Prison Realty Trust. Andrews was former chairman, president and CEO of Scovill Manufacturing. He also served as chairman, president and CEO of Singer Sewing Machine Company; as president CEO of UNR Industries, Inc.; as chairman, president and CEO of Amdura Corporation and chairman of Katy Industries. Most recently, he served as chairman of Northwestern Steel and Wire Company and was a director of Juvenile and Jail Facility Management Services, Inc. He has also served as chairman of several privately held companies: Utica Corporation, Schrader Bridgeport International, Inc., Scovill Fastners, Inc. and Allied Aerospace Corp. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland and holds an MBA degree from Seton Hall University.

John D. Correnti

John Correnti has served as a director and member of CCA’s audit committee since December 2000 and currently serves as chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Steel Development Company, LLC. Previously, Correnti served as Chairman and CEO of Birmingham Steel Corporation from December 1999 until its sale to Nucor Corporation in December 2002. Correnti served as president, CEO and vice chairman of Nucor Corporation, a mini mill manufacturer of steel products, from 1996 to 1999 and as its president and CEO from 1991 to 1996. Correnti also serves as director of Navistar International Corporation. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Clarkson University.

Dennis DeConcini

Dennis DeConcini, the former U.S. Senator from Arizona, was elected as an independent member of CCA’s Board of Directors in February 2008. Senator DeConcini currently serves as a Director of Ceramic Protection Corporation, a publicly traded company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. He is a partner in the law firm of DeConcini McDonald Yetwin and Lacy in Tucson, Arizona, which he co-founded in 1968. DeConcini also is a Principal in the lobbyist consulting firm Parry, Romani, DeConcini & Lacy P.C. in Washington, D.C. Senator DeConcini served three terms, from January 1977 through January 1995, representing the State of Arizona in the United States Senate. As Senator, he served on the Senate Appropriations Committee, where he chaired the Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service and General Government. He also served on the Subcommittees of Defense, Foreign Operations, Energy and Water Development, and Interior and Related Agencies. Prior to his service as a U.S. Senator, DeConcini served one elected term as the County Attorney for Pima County, Arizona. He also is a member of the Arizona Board of Regents, a position to which he was appointed in 2006 by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Senator DeConcini received his B.A. from the University of Arizona in 1959 and his L.L.D. from there in 1963. He also is a member of the Arizona Board of Regents, a position to which he was appointed in 2006 by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Senator DeConcini received his B.A. from the University of Arizona in 1959 and his L.L.D. from there in 1963.

Damon Hininger

Damon Hininger has served as a director since August 2009. Hininger was named President and Chief Executive Officer in August 2009, having previously been appointed as President and Chief Operating Officer in July 2008. Damon served as Senior Vice President of Federal and Local Customer Relations since September 2007 after having served as Vice President of Federal and Local Customer Relations since June 2002. Hininger previously served CCA as Vice President, Business Analysis since December 2000. He has also served the company as Director, Strategic Planning and Director Proposal Development. Hininger joined the company in 1992 as a correctional officer at Leavenworth Detention Center in Leavenworth, Kansas, and was promoted to Training Manager at Central Arizona Detention Center in 1994. That same year, Hininger was also selected as both Central Arizona Detention Center’s and CCA’s company-wide Employee of the Year. He joined the corporate office in 1995, serving as Manager, Facility Start Up for three years. Hininger earned a B.S. from Kansas State University and an M.B.A. from the Jack Massey Graduate School of Business at Belmont University in Nashville.

John R. Horne

John Horne has served as a director since December 2001. Additionally, Mr. Horne served as chairman of Navistar International Corporation, a publicly-traded truck and engine manufacturer from April 1996 to February 2004. From March 1995 to February 2003, Mr. Horne served as Navistar’s president and chief executive officer, after having served as the company’s chief operating officer for more than four years. Mr. Horne also currently serves on the board of directors of Intermet Corporation, the National Association of Manufacturers, and Junior Achievement of Chicago, as well as the board of trustees of Manufacturer’s Alliance/MAPI. Mr. Horne received his M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Bradley University in 1964, a B.S. degree in engineering from Purdue University in 1960, which also awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree in May 1998, and is a graduate of the management program at Harvard Graduate School of Business Adminstration.

C. Michael Jacobi

C. Michael Jacobi has seved as a director since December 2000. Mr. Jacobi served from June 2001 to May 2005 as President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Katy Industries, Inc., a public company headquartered in Middlebury, Connecticut engaged in the design, manufacture and distribution of maintenance and electrical products. Mr. Jacobi served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Timex Corporation from 1993 to 1999 and as a member of the board of directors from 1992 to 2000. Prior to his election as President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jacobi served Timex in senior positions in marketing, sales, finance and manufacturing. Mr. Jacobi is also a member of the board of directors and chairman of the audit committee of Webster Financial Corporation, a publicly held bank (NYSE) with $18 billion of assets headquartered in Waterbury, Connecticut and is a member of the board of directors of Invisible Technologies, Inc., a privately held company headquartered in Garrett, Indiana engaged in the design, manufacture and distribution of electronic training products for sporting dogs and pets. He has also served as Chairman of Timex Watches Limited (India), a publicly held company headquartered in New Delhi, India; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Beepwear Paging Products, a private company jointly owned by Timex and Motorola; Chairman of Callanen International, a private company engaged in the fashion watch industry, a member of the board of directors of Quatro / Cinco Limited, a private holding company headquartered in Oslo, Norway with interest in shipping, hotels, ship building, newspapers, consumer products and the oil services industry and Hometown Auto Retailer, a public company headquartered in Watertown, Connecticut engaged in retail sales of new and used automobiles. Mr. Jacobi holds a B.S. from the University of Connecticut and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Thurgood Marshall, Jr.

Thurgood Marshall has served as a director and member of the Nominating and Governance Committee since December 2002. Marshall is a partner in the law firm of Bingham McCutchen LLP in Washington D.C., and a principal in Bingham Consulting Group LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bingham McCutchen LLP that assists business clients with communications, political and legal strategies. Marshall, the son of the historic Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, has held appointments in each branch of the federal government, including Cabinet Secretary to President Clinton and Director of Legislative Affairs and Deputy Counsel to Vice President Al Gore. In his role under President Clinton, Marshall was the chief liaison between the President and the agencies of the Executive Branch. He serves on the American Bar Association Election Law Committee and serves as a board member of the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, the National Womens Law Center and the Supreme Court Historical Society, and serves on the Ethics Oversight Committee of the United States Olympic Committee. Marshall earned a bachelor’s degree in 1978 and a J.D. in 1981 from the University of Virginia, after which he clerked for United States District Judge Barrington D. Parker.

Charles L. Overby

Charles Overby has served as a director since December 2001. Overby is chairman and chief executive officer of the Freedom Forum, an independent, non-partisan foundation dedicated to First Amendment and media issues. Overby also is chairman and CEO of an affiliate organization: The Newseum, a state-of-the-art museum of news in Arlington, VA. Overby is a former Pulitzer Prize-winning editor in Jackson, Miss. He worked for 16 years as reporter, editor and corporate executive for Gannett Co., the nation’s largest newspaper company. He was vice president for news and communications for Gannett and served on the management committees of Gannett and USA TODAY. As a reporter, he covered the White House, presidential campaigns, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. He was named president and chief executive officer of the Gannett Foundation in 1989. The foundation was renamed The Freedom Forum in 1991. He became chairman as well as CEO in 1997. Overby has served two stints in government: He was press assistant to Sen. John Stennis, D-Miss., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and special assistant for administration to Gov. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

John R. Prann, Jr.

John Prann, Jr. has served as a director since December 2001. Prann served from 1993 to 2001 as president and CEO of Katy Industries, Inc., a publicly-traded manufacturer and distributor of consumer electric corded products and maintenance cleaning products. From 1991 to 1995, he was president and CEO of CRL, Inc., an equity and real estate development company, which held a 25% interest in Katy. A former partner with the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche, Mr. Prann serves on the boards of several institutions including Dynojet Research, Inc., Student Leadership Institute and Cardinal Cushing School and is an advocate of education and youth issues. A 1974 graduate of the University of California, Riverside, Prann obtained his M.B.A. degree from the University of Chicago in 1979.

Joseph V. Russell

Joseph Russell has served as a director since 1999. Prior to CCA’s 1999 merger with Prison Realty Trust, Russell served as an independent trustee for old Prison Realty. He is president and CFO of Elan-Polo, Inc., a Nashville-based, privately-held, world-wide producer and distributor of footwear. Russell is also vice president in RCR Building Corporation, a Nashville-based, privately-held builder and developer of commercial and industrial properties. He also serves on the boards of Community Care Corporation and the Footwear Distributors of America Association. Russell graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1963 with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance.

Henri L. Wedell

Henri Wedell has served as a director since December 2000. Wedell is a private investor in Memphis, Tenn. Prior to Wedell’s retirement in 1999, he served as the senior vice president of sales for The Robinson Humphrey Co., a subsidiary of Smith-Barney, Inc., an investment banking company he was employed with for over 24 years. From 1990 to 1996, he served as a member of the board of directors of Community Bancshares, Inc., the parent corporation to The Community Bank of Germantown, Tennessee. Wedell graduated from Tulane University in 1963.

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